Document printing techniques

ABSTRACT

We describe a portable paperless electronic printer for displaying a printed document on an electronic paper display. The paperless electronic printer includes an input to receive print data from an output of a printer driver of a computerised electronic device, a non-volatile electrophoretic display to provide an electronic paper display of stored said print data for a said document page to mimic said document page when printed on paper; and a processor coupled to said input, to non-volatile memory, and to said non-volatile electrophoretic display and configured to input said print data, to store said data derived from said print data in said non-volatile memory, and to provide to said non-volatile electrophoretic display data for displaying a said document page derived from said stored data.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a portable paperless electronic printer fordisplaying a printed document on an electronic paper display.

The application is related to other co-pending US applications filed onthe same day by the same assignee, all hereby incorporated by referencein their entirety.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

We have previously described a form of electronic book in our earlierapplications PCT/GB2006/050235 and GB 0702347.6, hereby incorporated byreference.

Background prior art relating to electronic document reading devices canbe found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,124,851, US2004/0201633, US2006/0133664,US2006/0125802, US2006/0139308, US2006/0077190, US2005/0260551, U.S.Pat. No. 6,124,851, U.S. Pat. No. 6,021,306, US2005/0151742, andUS2006/0119615. Prior art relating to displays can be found inEP0283235A, GB2214342A, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,831,662.

There is, however, a need to improve on such devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention there is therefore provided aportable paperless electronic printer for displaying a printed documenton an electronic paper display, the paperless electronic printercomprising: an input to receive print data from an output of a printerdriver of a computerised electronic device, said print data comprisingdata for one or more document pages to be printed; non-volatile memoryfor storing data derived from said print data; a non-volatile reflectivedisplay to provide an electronic paper display of stored said print datafor a said document page to mimic said document page when printed onpaper; and a processor coupled to said input, to said non-volatilememory, and to said non-volatile reflective display and configured toinput said print data, to store said data derived from said print datain said non-volatile memory, and to provide to said non-volatilereflective display data for displaying a said document page derived fromsaid stored data.

Broadly speaking embodiments of the printer can be used in the same wayas a conventional, paper—based printer (by opening a document andclicking print) a printed page appearing on the display in a manner thatmimics paper. Moreover, the device is, in embodiments, portable andbattery powered and provides a permanent, paper-like display. Inembodiments of the printer, the device is the same size as the apparentsize as the document page—that is the same size as a piece of paper ifthe page had been printed on a conventional printer; moreover inembodiments the printer is thin, light to hold, and has at least someflexibility. Overall the impression of a user is of printed “electronicpaper”. In embodiments the non-volatile reflective display comprises anelectrophoretic display, but this is not essential.

In embodiments of the printer, the device is configured to receiveprinted data comprising data representing an image of a printed documentpage (or pages). This may be stored in the non-volatile memory in a,preferably lossless, compressed format.

In embodiments the portable paperless electronic printer comprises anelectronic document reading device with an electrophoretic display,arranged to mimic paper. Thus preferred embodiments of the printercomprise an electrophoretic display with a border which is substantiallyvisually matched to the display to give the impression that the displayruns up to the edges of the device. In embodiments the “display surface”is flat to edges of the printer. Then, when a page is printed, themargins of the image, that is edge portions of the image of the documentpage from which information is substantially absent, are cropped and theborder of the electrophoretic display gives the impression of thesemargins when the document page is displayed. In this way the displayeddocument page, to a viewer, appears to extend substantially to edges orlateral boundaries of the paperless electronic printer.

The printer may have both a portrait orientation and a landscapeorientation. In embodiments of the printer the border includes one ormore touch sensitive regions and the processor is configured torecognise one or more touch gestures formed on the border irrespectiveof the orientation of the printer. This again helps to create an overallease of use similar to that of paper. In embodiments a part or all ofthe electrophoretic display is touch sensitive and the processor isconfigured to enable a user to mark up a printed document, for examplewith a pen. This information may then be stored in the non-volatilememory, for example in association with the document page to which itbelongs, in embodiments as a bit map or image. This information may beextracted from the printer and, in some preferred implementations, theprinter has a synchronisation function in which printed document pagesare received from the computerised (consumer) electronic device and/orin which user annotations are provided back to the computerisedelectronic device. Preferred embodiments of the printer have a physicalsize which corresponds to a standard paper size, for example anInternational standard paper size such as defined in ISO216 (or anequivalent German DIN standard, Swedish SIS standard, or Japanese JISstandard) or a standard North American paper size such as described inANSI/ASME standard Y14.1 (for example, letter, legal and alike). Theprinter may have a wired and/or wireless connection to the computerisedelectronic device.

Use of a printer driver is a particularly convenient technique forpaperless electronic printing. However, in the above described inventionthe printer driver may be replaced by some other form of interfacesoftware.

Thus in a related aspect the invention provides a method of printing adocument onto an electronic paper display, the method comprising:inputting print data from a printer driver of a computerised electronicdevice, said print data comprising data for one or more document pagesto be printed; storing data derived from said print data in non-volatilememory; reading said data derived from said print data from saidnon-volatile memory; providing to a non-volatile reflective displaydocument page data for displaying a document page derived from saidstored data; and displaying said document page data on said non-volatilereflective display to mimic said document page when printed on paper.

Preferably the document page is displayed, as described above, such thata border of the electrophoretic display is used to “display” a margin ofthe document page.

In a further related aspect the invention provides an electronicdocument display device configured as previously described to implementthis technique. The border of the electrophoretic display may be used toconceal electrical connections and the like to the electrophoreticdisplay, thus enabling the displayed document page to appear as thoughit extends right to the edge of the device without needing aprogrammable display to extend right to the edge of the device.

FURTHER FEATURES OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

We also describe a paperless printer for displaying an electronicdocument page, the paperless printer comprising a central rewritableportion, a non-rewritable border with external lateral physicaldimensions defined by the display edges, wherein the border is colouredto substantially match a background colour of the central rewritableportion such that when a foreground part of the document page isdisplayed on the central rewritable portion the appearance of margins ofthe document page is provided by the background coloured border wherebyin use the displayed electronic document page appears to extend up tothe display edges, and wherein the surface of the display issubstantially flat over the lateral physical dimensions from the centralrewritable portion across the border to the display edges.

In embodiments the electronic document page has one of a set ofpredetermined sizes, the information on the page is located in a centralportion of the page bordered by the margins, and when the page isdisplayed on the paperless printer a size of the central portion of thepage substantially fits a size of the central rewritable portion of thepaperless printer and a width of the non-rewritable border of thepaperless printer substantially matches a width of a the margin of thedocument page. Thus, when the document page is displayed, the appearanceof the width of the margin of the document page provided by thebackground coloured border is substantially in proportion to the size ofthe central portion of the page.

Preferably the paperless printer includes non-volatile memory storingdata defining the information on the central portion of the page anddata identifying the size of the document page. Thus an aspect ratio ofthe paperless printer substantially matches an aspect ratio of thepredetermined electronic document page size and a size of the border issubstantially in proportion to a size of a corresponding margin.

In embodiments the lateral physical dimensions of the paperless printerare within 1 cm to that of an international paper size standard, inparticular ISO 216 or ANSI/ASME Y14.1. In embodiments the foregroundpart of the document page displayed on the central rewritable portionextends to a distance less than 5 mm away from the non-rewritableborder. Preferably no portion of the display extends in front of thedisplay surface. Preferably the central re-writable portion of thedisplay comprises an electrophoretic display element.

In embodiments the display has a front surface element and the border offront surface element is coloured with the background colour on a rearface of the front surface element. In embodiments the border of frontsurface element is coloured by embedding coloured particles into therear surface. Then the electrophoretic display element extends beyondthe re-writable portion of the display behind the coloured border, andthe electrophoretic display element is substantially flush against therear surface at an edge of the coloured border around the centralre-writable portion of the display. The optical density of the colouredborder may reduce gradually towards the central rewritable portion sothat the boundary between the border and the central-rewritable portionis rendered less visible. The border may comprises electrophoreticdisplay material. Preferably the background colour is substantiallywhite, and the display surface has substantially the appearance of apiece of paper.

A paperless printer system including a paperless printer as describedabove may further comprise processor control code to input data definingthe electronic document page, the processor control code cropping themargins of the electronic document page, and writing data for thecropped document page to the central re-writeable portion of the displaysuch that an appearance of the margin of the document page is providedby the background coloured border of the paperless printer.

The paperless printer may include one or more touch sensitive elementsfor controlling the paperless printer, wherein at least one of the touchsensitive elements is disposed in one or more portions of the borderregion and the touch sensitive elements being arranged to generate asignal in response to a user touching the display surface in a region ofthe border to control the paperless printer. The touch sensitiveelements may be disposed beneath the display surface and the border.Further touch sensitive elements may be disposed in a region of thecentral rewriteable portion of the device. Preferably at least one ofthe touch-sensitive elements disposed in the border region are operableby the touch of a finger. The touch sensor may be a capacitive touchsensor with at least one of its electrodes deposited onto a rear face ofthe front surface element.

In some preferred embodiments the paperless printer is bendable,conformable to adopt a non-planar shape and/or rollable.

We also describe a method of displaying a document page with apredetermined size using a paperless printer having edges defininglateral dimensions not substantially larger than the predetermined sizeand having a central re-writable display portion and a non-re-writableborder, the document page comprising a central, foreground portionbearing one or both of text and graphics, a background having abackground colour and at least one margin having the background colour,the method comprising: inputting page data defining a page for display;processing the page data to crop margins of the page such that, whendisplayed on the re-writable display portion, the non-re-writable bordergives the appearance of the cropped margins, the processing generatingcropped page data; and outputting the cropped page data for display onthe re-writable display portion of the display.

The method enables a document to be displayed on a display comprising anon-re-writable portion, which emulates a border of the document beingdisplayed. Preferably, therefore, the display has a front surface (orsurface element) and the border of the front surface (or surfaceelement) is coloured with the background colour on a rear face of thefront surface (or surface element). Preferably, the border of frontsurface element is coloured by embedding coloured particles into therear surface, and the electrophoretic display element extends beyond there-writable portion of the display behind the coloured border,substantially flush against the rear surface at an edge of the colouredborder around the central re-writable portion of the display.Preferably, the optical density of the coloured border reduces graduallytowards the central rewritable portion whereby the boundary between theborder and the central-rewritable portion is rendered less visible.Preferably, the background colour is substantially white so that thedisplay surface has substantially the appearance of a piece of paper.

Thus embodiments of the method help to provide a paperless printer inwhich a displayed page appears to extend right to the edge of the devicewithout the need for very sharp bends in flexible circuit board orwiring connecting to edges of the re-writable portion of the display.This is because by cropping the edges of a page prior to displaying theapparent margins of the page are provided by the non-re-writable bordersof the paperless printer whilst the actual edge(s) of the rewritabledisplay to which connections are made lie within the apparent edges ofthe displayed page.

Preferably, the lateral dimensions of the paperless printer are within 1cm to that of a standard paper size, in particular ISO 216 or ANSI/ASMEY14.1. Preferably, the central foreground portion displayed on thecentral rewritable portion extends to a distance of less than 5 mm awayfrom the non-rewritable border.

In some preferred embodiments such a method (and a method as describedlater below) is implemented in another (host) computer system from whichthe paperless printer receives processed, cropped page data. Inembodiments the page cropping procedure is implemented using a printerdriver of the (host) computer system.

Preferably, the central re-writable display portion comprises anelectrophoretic display element. In embodiments of the method thepaperless printer is not completely rigid, having at least a degree offlexibility to impart robustness to the device.

Preferably, processing said page data further comprises formatting alayout of one or both of said text and graphics of said document pagesuch that said text and graphics are displayable on said re-writabledisplay portion. The page data may be received from a device such as alaptop computer, desktop computer, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA),mobile telephone or smart telephone, either as page data for cropping bysaid display device or as pre-cropped page data, preferably in the formof page image data. The page data is preferably stored in a non-volatilememory store of the display device.

The predetermined page size may be a standard size such as aninternational standard ISO216 size (for example an A-series size such asA4 or A5, a B-series size such as B4 or B5 or a C-series size) or asubstantially equivalent DIN, SIS of JIS size; or a North Americanstandard size such as AWS1 Y14.1 (for example, letter, legal and thelike). The document page may be displayed at substantially 1:1 scale(which may include a scale in one or both dimensions down to 0.9:1,0.8:1 or 0.7:1).

This enables a device of, say, A4 size to display a page atsubstantially 1:1 scale on a device not substantially larger than thepage size, in this example, A4 size. This is because the display can besmaller than (say) A4, the borders of the display giving substantiallythe same impression as the (background) of the display screen. This inturn, enables a viewer to have the impression that the displayed pageextends right to the edges of the paperless printer. (It will beunderstood that in this specification references to a (background)colour include black, grey and white).

The processing to crop the margins of a displayed page may comprise adetermining, for a set of pages of a document, a minimum margin sizefor, preferably each of top, bottom, left and right margins. Thisminimum margin size determines the amount which can safely be croppedfrom each of the respective margins without losing any information on apage. Preferably, therefore, in this context a margin is that portion ofa page which, amongst the pages of a document for display, hasinformation which does not substantially change from one page to thenext. Typically this is a “white space” part of a page. Thus it will beappreciated that changing information such as a page number is notincluded in the margins since this information is preferably displayedon the re-writable portion of the display since it changes from one pageto the next. Preferably the margin comprises a blank space on a page,that is a region of the page where there is substantially no informationcontent (theoretically, in embodiments, information which does notchange from one page to the next such as logo could be definedpermanently in the non-rewriteable border). The cropping may compriseremoving edge portions of an image of a page and then, preferably,resealing the page to compensate for the cropping.

The page data is preferably in the form of image data defining an imageof a page. This facilitates display almost any type of information sinceblank space margins can be identified by image processing. This in turnfacilitates implementation of a technique in a printer driver, thusmaking the technique agnostic to the type of information displayed orthe source of the information (word processor, image processor, musicprocessor, e-mail, web pages, or any other source of printedinformation). The technique may therefore accept imaged data from aprinter driver, for example incorporated within another electronicdevice, or the technique may be implemented within the printer driveritself, thus reducing the processing load on the electronic documentreader and saving power. In still other embodiments, however, the pagedata may include explicit page layout information for processing.

In preferred implementations of the technique a pages is scaled so thatwhen it is displayed at least one element of information which changesfrom one page to another substantially abuts an edge of the rewritabledisplay portion adjacent the non-rewritable border. For a top marginthis may comprise, for example, a page number. In other implementationsor for example, at the option of a user, information of this type may beomitted from the display to provide a closer to a 1:1, paper-likerepresentation of a displayed page. In this case, for a document, themargins may be defined by one or more boundaries or a boundary box ofwords or other information content on the page rather than by materialwhich is in a header and/or footer or which is in what a word processormight define as a margin of the page.

We also describe a method of displaying one or more pages of a documenton an electronic document reading device using a second, computerisedelectronic device, the method comprising: opening said document on saidsecond electronic device using an application running on said secondelectronic device; using an intermediary code module coupled to saidapplication to generate image data representing an image of a said pageof said document to be displayed on said electronic document readingdevice; sending said image of said page to said electronic documentreading device; and displaying said image of said page on saidelectronic document reading device.

In preferred embodiments of the method the electronic document readingdevice is able to display the one or more page images directly, withoutfurther rendering locally on the reading device (paperless printer).Preferably, therefore, the method involves one or both of scaling andcropping an image of page using image data from one or more other pagesof the document prior to sending a page image to the electronic documentreading device. In embodiments the image sent to the reading device hasa resolution corresponding to a resolution of the re-writable displayportion of the device and is displayed at substantially this resolution.Thus in some preferred embodiments the image data is provided to thedocument reading device in a standard image format, optionallycompressed, so that it need not be re-scaled. One example of an imageformat which may be employed is the PNG (portable network graphics)image format, although many other image formats are possible; ifcompression is employed preferably this is lossless.

In some preferred embodiments the intermediary code module generatingthe image data comprises a printer driver for the application.Preferably the application is invoked by a management program,preferably in a manner which is hidden from the user. This may compriserunning a document display management program on said second electronicdevice and using the management program to invoke the application toperform the opening of the document such that the opening of thedocument is hidden from the user. This enables automatic transfer ofscaled and/or cropped documents or document pages from a host device toa document reading device of the type we describe, for example as partof an automatic, background synchronisation service. In embodiments thisavoids a user needing to invoke a synchronisation function as the systemwill automatically render and send an image, at a suitable resolution,to the reading device for display.

Preferably the management program is used to select an application touse for opening the document, selecting a method of the invokingdependent on the application selected. In some preferred implementationthe management program runs as a background service responsive todetection of a change in the document to automatically generate an imageof at least a changed part of the document and to send the image of thechanged part to the reading device. Additionally or alternativelyhowever the application may be invoked via a user command to displaypart or all of a document, for example a user command to “print” adocument to the paperless printer, a user dragging-and-dropping adocument onto an icon representing the paperless printer.

In some preferred embodiments the management program performs theprinting by controlling a relevant application for the document,transparently to the user, to process the document, using a printerdriver to form pixel images of the one or more printed pages. In thisway many complex functions supported by the application may be providedfor the paperless printer without the need to implement these separatelyand for each different supported document type. The skilled person willunderstand from the forgoing that virtually any type of document may besupported in this way providing there is a suitable application on thesecond, computerised electronic device for printing the documentconventionally. Thus “document” is to be interpreted broadly, includingweb pages, e-mails, image pages and many other types of document formateven including for example, musical stores and the like.

We also describe a method of displaying one or more pages of a documenton an electronic document reading device using a second, computerisedelectronic device, the method comprising: running a document displaymanagement program on said second electronic device; using saidmanagement program to invoke opening of said document on said secondelectronic device using an application running on said second electronicdevice; using a printer driver for said application to generate datarepresenting said page of said document to be displayed on saidelectronic document reading device; and sending said data representingsaid page to said electronic document reading device for display.

We also describe a consumer electronics device including a processor andnon-volatile memory and programmed to display one or more pages of adocument on an electronic document reading device using a second,computerised electronic device by: opening said document on said secondelectronic device using an application running on said second electronicdevice; using an intermediary code module coupled to said application togenerate image data representing an image of a said page of saiddocument to be displayed on said electronic document reading device; andsending said image of said page to said electronic document readingdevice for display on said electronic document reading device.

We also describe a consumer electronics device including a processor andnon-volatile memory and programmed to display one or more pages of adocument on an electronic document reading device using a second,computerised electronic device by: running a document display managementprogram on said second electronic device; using said management programto invoke opening of said document on said second electronic deviceusing an application running on said second electronic device; using aprinter driver for said application to generate data representing saidpage of said document to be displayed on said electronic documentreading device; and sending said data representing said page to saidelectronic document reading device for display.

The above-described methods and devices may be implemented usingprocessor control code, for example on a general purpose computer systemor on a digital signal processor (DSP). The code may be provided on acarrier such as a disk, CD- or DVD-ROM, programmed memory such asread-only memory (Firmware). Code (and/or data) to implement embodimentsof the invention may comprise source, object or executable code in aconventional programming language (interpreted or compiled) such as C,or assembly code, code for setting up or controlling an ASIC(Application Specific Integrated Circuit) or FPGA (Field ProgrammableGate Array), or code for a hardware description language such as Verilog(Trade Mark) or VHDL (Very high speed integrated circuit HardwareDescription Language). As the skilled person will appreciate such codeand/or data may be distributed between a plurality of coupled componentsin communication with one another.

Features of the above described aspects and embodiments of the inventionmay be combined in any combination.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other aspects of the invention will now be further describedby way of example only, with reference to the accompanying figures inwhich:

FIGS. 1 a to 1 c show, respectively, a front, display face view, a rearview, and a vertical cross-section view of an electronic documentreading device according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 shows a detailed vertical cross-section through a display portionof the device of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3 a and 3 b illustrate display edging for the device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 a shows a device having a border comprising touch sensitiveelements;

FIG. 4 b shows a cross section through the edge of the device for FIG. 4a;

FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of control electronics for an electronicdocument reader according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIGS. 6 a to 6 c show examples of fitting document pages to are-writable display portion of an electronic document reader;

FIG. 7 shows margins of an example document page;

FIG. 8 shows a flow diagram of a procedure for establishing and applyinga common scaling to pages of a document with multiple pages to fit thepages within a re-writeable display portion of an electronic documentreader; and

FIG. 9 shows a block diagram of a system for implementing a paperlesselectronic document printing procedure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIGS. 1 a to 1 c, these schematically illustrate anelectronic document reading device 10 having a front display face 12 anda rear face 14. As can be seen from FIG. 1 c, in preferred embodimentsthe display surface 12 is substantially flat to the edges of the deviceand, in particular, lacks a display bezel. However in embodimentsdescribed later it will be seen that the electronic (electrophoretic)display does not extend right to the edges of the display surface 12,and rigid control electronics are incorporated around the edges of theelectronic display, this approach reducing the overall thickness of thedevice and thus facilitating flex-tolerance, at the expense of makingthe overall area of the device slightly larger.

Referring now to FIG. 2, this illustrates a vertical cross-sectionthrough a display region of the device between the frame members 16. Thedrawing is not to scale.

As can be seen, in preferred embodiments the device has a substantiallytransparent front panel 100, for example made of Perspex (RTM), whichacts as a structural member. The active matrix pixel driver circuitrylayer 106 may comprise an array of organic or inorganic thin filmtransistors as disclosed, for example, in WO01/47045. Such a front panelis not necessary and sufficient physical stiffiess could be provided,for example, by the substrate 108 optionally in combination with one orboth of the moisture barriers 102, 110.

The illustrated example of the structure comprises a substrate 108,typically of plastic such as PET (polyethylene terephthalate) on whichis fabricated a thin layer 106 of organic active matrix pixel drivercircuitry. Attached over this, for example by adhesive, is anelectrophoretic display 104, although alternative display media such asan organic LED display medium or liquid-crystal display medium may alsobe used. A moisture barrier 102 is provided over the electronic display104, for example of polyethylene and/or Aclar™, a fluoropolymer(polychlorotrifluoroethylene-PCTFE). A moisture barrier 110 is alsopreferably provided under substrate 108; since this moisture barrierdoes not need to be transparent preferably moisture barrier 110incorporates a metallic moisture barrier such as a layer of aluminiumfoil. This allows the moisture barrier to be thinner, hence enhancingoverall flexibility.

Approximate example thicknesses for the layers are as follows: 100 μmfor moisture barrier 110, 200 μm for substrate 108, 5-6 μm for activelayer 106, 190 μm for display 104, and 200 μm for moisture barrier 102.The set of layers 102-110 form an encapsulated electronic display 112;preferably this is bonded, for example by adhesive, to a transparentdisplay panel 100. The front panel 100 may have a thickness in the range0.5-2 mm, for example approximately 1 mm.

Surprisingly it has been found that the presence of the front panel 100has little effect on the overall visual appearance of the display, inparticular the contrast ratio. It is speculated that this is becausealthough whites become slightly greyer, black becomes slightly blacker.

As mentioned above, the active area of the display does not extend tothe edge of the display surface, which enables the electronics tocontrol the active display to be placed around the edge of the readingdevice.

Referring to FIG. 3 a, this schematically illustrates a display edgingarrangement (the illustration is simplified, and not to scale). As shownthe display edging 122 is provided around the perimeter of theelectrophoretic display 104. This display edging is coloured tosubstantially match the colour of the active display area 104, whichgives the appearance that the reader is a single display extending tothe edges of the reader device. Thus in embodiments a boundary betweenthe active display area and a border of the active display area formingmargins of a displayed page is at least partially concealed and may besubstantially invisible.

In an embodiment, the display edging may comprise a simple border whichmay be, for example, sprayed onto the front panel 100. However in otherembodiments to provide a uniform appearance to a user display edging 112may comprise electrophoretic display material such as an additional,undriven sheet of electrophoretic display or an undriven lateralextension of electrophoretic display 104.

FIG. 3 b shows an alternative embodiment of the display, which comprisesa display edging 122 that forms part of the front panel 100. Techniquessuch as dye sublimation are used to embed the transparent front panelwith coloured particles. Other techniques for embedding colouredparticles into the material of the transparent front panel 100 may beused.

A tapered portion 124 of the embedded particles, where the depth ofpenetration of the particles into the front panel decreases as thedistance from the edge (towards the centre of the device) increases,provides a gradual fade from the display edge to the active display.Such a taper provides a softer edge between the display edge and theactive display, which further helps to create the illusion that theactive display extends to the edge of the reading device.

Further, the device comprises a visual continuation between the borderof the device and the display, such that the display is flush to theborder of the device. The visual continuation of the two components (theborder and the display) is such that the appearance of a materialcontinuation between the two components is also provided.

In embodiments, the electronic document reader comprises connectorslocated along an edge of the device to enable the device to be connectedto other electronic devices, such as a laptop or desktop computer, a PDA(Personal Digital Assistant), a mobile phone or ‘smart’ phone, or othersuch devices. A USB (universal serial bus) or similar connector is, forexample, provided. However, in embodiments, the electronic documentreader may also be provided with wireless interfaces (for example ainfrared or Bluetooth™ or other such interfaces). Such connectionsenable documents to be transferred to and from the electronic documentreader.

The device may also include a number of user controls for selectingdocuments and/or pages, turning pages forward and back and the like. Inembodiments, the border around the active display comprises touchsensitive elements. However in other embodiments the display may betouch sensitive, for example as described in our co-pendinginternational patent application PCT/GB2006/050220 hereby incorporatedby reference in its entirety. Such sensors may include capacitivesensors or resistive touch sensors. The aforementioned patentapplication describes an arrangement in which a touch-screen componentis positioned below the display, but which is nonetheless operable fromthe front, display surface, in particular by laminating the displaymedium and display backplane over a resistive touch-screen (using apressure sensitive adhesive). However the skilled person will appreciatethat other forms of touch-screen technology may additionally oralternatively be employed. In such embodiments, documents may beelectronically “marked-up”, with mark-up data being written to or beingassociated with the electronic document being displayed.

As mentioned above, embodiments may have a border comprising touchsensitive elements, as shown for example in FIG. 4 a. Such elements mayprovide a number of user controls for selecting documents and/or pages,turning pages forward and back and the like. The touch sensitiveelements may be arranged around one or more of the borders of thedevice. The touch sensors may be arranged such that location agnosticgestures are enabled, wherein a user may perform the same gesture at anypoint around the border to produce the same result, in particular,independent of orientation (portrait or landscape) of the device.

FIG. 4 b shows a cross section through the edge of a device. To formsuch touch sensors, an upper conductive layer of the touch sensor ispatterned on the underside of the border 122. The upper conductive layeris patterned to produce a sensor array, which is formed of a design soas to enable touch sensitive gestures to be provided, both in ahorizontal and vertical direction. The upper conductive layer may be aconductive polymer or preferably a metallic layer, such as, but notlimited to copper, nickel, gold or silver or alternatively a printablemetal. The conductive layer maybe deposited using techniques such asvacuum deposition, electroplating and printing techniques, such asscreen printing.

An insulator material layer is then deposited over the upper conductivelayer, by techniques such as but not limited to, spray or blade coatingor printing techniques. A lower conductive layer is then deposited overthe dielectric layer and patterned, as above. The lower conductive layerforms the ground plane and may also form the tracking plane.Alternatively, a separate conductive layer may be deposited andpatterned as above to form the tracking plane, separated from theadjacent conductive layer by a further layer of dielectric material.

Via hole interconnects are formed between the sensor array and thetracking plane, in order to connect these two layers electrically. Thetracking plane is then in turn connected to the electronics of thedevice.

There are several ways that the connection may be formed between theupper conductive layer and the electronics of the device. Suchconnections may be formed mechanically, with the aid of an adhesive orthrough a welding process.

As mentioned above, in preferred embodiments the display medium is areflective display medium, in particular an electrophoretic displaymedium and the backplane comprises a flexible substrate such as PET orPEN (polyethylene naphthalene). Preferably the backplane is fabricatedusing solution-based transistors preferably patterned by techniques suchas direct-write printing, laser ablation or photolithography. Furtherdetails can be found in the applicant's earlier patent applications,including, in particular, WO 01/47045, WO 2004/070466, WO 01/47043, WO2006/059162, WO 2006/056808, WO 2006/061658, WO 2006/106365 andPCT/GB2006/050265, all hereby incorporated by reference in theirentirety.

Referring now to FIG. 5, this shows example control circuitry 1000suitable for the above-described electronic document reader 10. Thecontrol circuitry comprises a controller 1002 including a processor,working memory and programme memory, coupled to a user interface 1004for example for controls 130. The controller is also coupled to theactive matrix driver circuitry 106 and electrophoretic display 104 by adisplay interface 1006 for example provided by integrated circuits 120.In this way controller 1002 is able to send electronic document data tothe display 104 and, optionally, to receive touch-sense data from thedisplay. The control electronics also includes non-volatile memory 1008,for example Flash memory for storing data for one or more documents fordisplay and, optionally, other data such as user bookmark locations andthe like. An external interface 1010 is provided for interfacing with acomputer such as laptop, PDA, or mobile or ‘smart’ phone 1014 to receivedocument data and, optionally, to provide data such as user bookmarkdata. The interface 1010 may comprise a wired, for example USB, and/orwireless, for example Bluetooth™ interface and, optionally, an inductiveconnection to receive power. The latter feature enables embodiments ofthe device to entirely dispense with physical electrical connections andhence facilitates inter alia a simpler physical construction andimproved device aesthetics as well as greater resistance to moisture. Arechargeable battery 1012 or other rechargeable power source isconnected to interface 1010 for recharging, and provides a power supplyto the control electronics and display. The skilled person willappreciate that processor control code for a wide range of functions maybe stored in the programme memory. By way of example a simple documentdisplay procedure may comprise, in operation, sensing a user control1050, determining which document to update 1052, reading a portion ofthe relevant document from the non-volatile memory 1054, and writing theread portion of the document to the page display 1056.

As discussed above, electronic documents to be displayed on the readermay come from a variety of sources, for example a laptop or desktopcomputer, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a mobile phone (eg SmartPhones such as the Blackberry™), or other such devices. Using the wired(eg USB etc) or wireless (eg Bluetooth™) interfaces, the user cantransfer such electronic documents to the document reader in a varietyof ways. Electronic documents may comprise any number of formatsincluding, but not limited to, PDF, Microsoft Word™, Bitmaps, JPG, TIFFand other known formats.

There are three main ways in which the transfer of files may occur.

A first is the act of transferring the file from a device, such as amobile phone or a smart phone to the reader. Once transferred, the fileis then displayed on the reader. A second method of transfer is thesynchronisation of documents between the reader and a device, as long asthe reader is connected to a device such as a laptop. The same documentis therefore available on both devices. A third method of transfer isthe act of printing the document from a device such as a laptop or PConto the reader. The image of the document is therefore transferred tothe reader. These methods will now be described in more detail.

In a first method, electronic documents are stored in a separate laptopor desktop computer, PDA or ‘smart’ phone. The user then connects theelectronic document reader to any of the above devices using the wiredor wireless interfaces to synchronise the reader to the devices. Duringthis synchronisation, electronic documents that are stored in any numberof user-defined folders defined on the computer, PDA device or ‘smart’phone, and that are not present in the memory of the reader aretransferred to the reader. Similarly, any documents not present on thecomputer, PDA or ‘smart’ phone that are present on the reader (forexample, documents that have been modified or written to whilstdisplayed on the reader) may also be transferred back to the computer,PDA or ‘smart’ phone.

In such a method, the Personal Computer (PC) takes control of the deviceand transfers data to and from the device. To understand thecapabilities of the device, the PC may require several softwarecomponents to be installed, for example, a printer driver; a devicedriver (to manage the details of the communications protocol with thedevice) and a controlling management application.

A second method of transferring the documents is similar to the first,in that documents between a computer, PDA or ‘smart’ phone aresynchronised with the documents present in the memory of the reader.However, before the transfer begins (using the wired or wirelessinterfaces), the user may select which documents are synchronised. Thismay be achieved, for example, using a document management programmerunning on the computer, PDA or ‘smart’ phone. The user indicates aselection on the computer, PDA or ‘smart’ phone and only those files aresynchronised. Alternatively, a live synchronisation may be performed,where the reader could store all documents that have been recentlyviewed on the computer, PDA or ‘smart’ phone.

A third method of transferring electronic documents to the reader from acomputer, PDA-type device or ‘smart’ phone involves the use of anintermediary module to convert the electronic document into a suitableformat for displaying on the display. In such a method, the user“prints” the document to the reader so that the “printed” document isdisplayed on the active display of the reader. The intermediary modulemay include, amongst others, a printer driver module.

Thus an aspect the invention also provides a method uses an intermediarymodule to generate an image file of each page within a document beingprinted (although it is not essential, in embodiments of the invention,to employ such a technique).

These images may be compressed and stored in a native device format usedby the electronic reader. These files are then transferred to theelectronic reader device as part of a file synchronisation process.

One of the advantages of this technique is that it allows support forany document/file for which the operating system has a suitableintermediary application, such as a printer driver, installed. Duringthe file synchronisation sequence the control program looks at eachdocument and determine whether the operating system associates anapplication with that file, for example, a spreadsheet application willbe associated with a spreadsheet document. The control applicationinvokes the associated application and asks it to ‘print’ the documentto the device printer. The result will be a series of images in thedevice format corresponding to pages of the original document and willappear on the electronic reader, as if the document had been printed.

The intermediary module may reside in the computer, PDA or ‘smart’ phoneprinting the document, or reside in the document reader. Once a documenthas been selected for printing to the reader, the intermediate moduleprocesses the electronic document to enable the document to be displayedon the reader or on a remote server connected to the PC, PDA or ‘smart’phone. Processing may include adjusting or cropping margins,reformatting or repaginating text, converting picture elements within adocument into a suitable displayable content, and other such processes.In embodiments, the intermediate module may, for example, be a deviceprogramme such as a printer driver.

A fourth method of transferring electronic documents to a readerinvolves the use of Smart or mobile telephones that are capable ofreceiving and reading documents (whether attached to or embedded in amessage), for example the Blackberry™. In such a method, the act of“opening” a document within the telephone processes and transfers theelectronic document to the reader for displaying. Again, this method ofopening a document may utilise an intermediary module to process thedocument, as described above.

In such a method, the device may receive the documents via a wirelesslink such as Bluetooth™. A Bluetooth equipped ‘smart’ phone transfersfiles stored in its internal memory to the device. On receipt of such afile, if the file consists of a file format supported natively by thedevice, the device renders the pages from the document to store in thedevice memory. As soon as the first page is available, the file will bedisplayed on screen of the device. Alternatively, the pages of the filemay be rendered before transmission to the device. Further, a remoteserver may be accessed by a intermediary device, such as a PDA or amobile or smart phone. The information received by the intermediarydevice may be stored on such a device, before sending the document on tothe reader device.

Alternatively, the reader may be used as a storage device, for example,in the form of a USB memory stick. Documents of interest may betransferred to the reader for the user to access at a later date.

The active display area and (inactive) display edging are arranged toprovide the user with the appearance of a screen with a border ormargin. Furthermore, in embodiments, the document reader is dimensionedsuch that a page of an A4 document (ISO 216), or a document in a USletter (ANSI/ASME Y14.1) format, or any standard paper size, may bedisplayed at a 1:1 scale. Such an arrangement provides the user with adocument reader that therefore mimics the appearance of a printed sheetof A4 or US letter (or other like document formats).

However, electronic documents for displaying on the document readergenerally comprise an unused border or margin around the edge of thetext. If such a document were to be presented on the display of thereader, there would be an unwanted and unnecessary border or marginaround the document being displayed. There is therefore a need to removethis unwanted margin from the electronic document. Such a removal ofunwanted border or margin from the electronic document wouldadvantageously maximise the use of the active display area. The displayedging therefore becomes the border or margin that be present.

In addition to the reader, there is therefore also provided a croppingmodule that is configured to process the electronic document to removethe unwanted border around the text present in the document. Thecropping module may reside in the reader or the device from which thedocument is being transferred.

A device may be made such that the overall layout resembles standardpaper sizes, such as A4 or US letter. However, the active display partof such a device cannot extend to the border of the device due to theelectronics required to drive that display. When showing a document onsuch a display there are several possibilities:

-   -   Show the document at actual size. In this case, the edge of the        document will be lost to view as it will correspond to the area        of the device that hides the electronics. However, this is        unlikely to be satisfactory as the lost area may include text or        images that form part of the document.    -   Scale the document to the active display area. In this case, the        whole document is shown, but will be reduced in size        significantly.    -   Process the document to analyse how much margin area there is on        a document and scale the document such that only this margin        area is lost behind the electronics. In this case, no        information is lost and the maximum size of content is retained.

In order to generate the images for this latter choice, it is preferableto process the whole document. It is important when viewing the documenton the device that any scaling factor applied to a page of the documentis retained throughout the whole document. This inhibits the text fromgrowing or shrinking as the user changes page.

In the general case, the process knows nothing about the structure orcontent of a document. In order to generate the information, it isnecessary to process the document in two passes. The first pass will“print” the document to a series of images; each image representing asingle page. On each page, the largest margin on each of the four sidesis determined. For each side, the smallest of the set of pages isretained. So for example, if on page 1, the top margin is 10 mm and onpage 2 the top margin is 20 nm, we retain 10 mm as the smallest of thelargest margin available.

At the end of the first pass, sizes are available for each of themargins. A simple calculation will work out a (proportionally correct)scale factor that will allow content on any page in the document to beshown in the active display area of the device. The scale should beadjusted to ensure that it never makes the text larger than life-size(1:1 scale). This value is used to run the document through a secondpass of printing, to optimise the print for the display.

Referring now to FIG. 6 this shows an electronic document reading device(paperless printer) 600 with a re-writeable electrophoretic displayportion 602 and a border region 604 (in FIG. 6 the border is shaded forclarity; in reality it is matched to the re-writeable display area so asto appear like a continuation of the display area). A typical printeddocument has one or more pages 606, each page of which will have amargin on each of the top, bottom, left and right side which contains nocontent.

In an ideal situation (FIG. 6 a), the size of the margins would be atleast the same size as the display edging of the reader. If such a pageis displayed on the reader at the same size as it would be printed on aconventional printer (a preferred default setting of the device), thenthe reader will not lose any content (the margins correspond to the nonre-writeable display area). However, in general not all the pages willmeet this requirement: Their margins are likely to be smaller than thedevice edging, and in this case part of the content will be obscured asshown in FIG. 6 b. Therefore, it is desirable to reduce the physicalpage size, to display all of the content, as shown in FIG. 6 c.

In a general case the process for analysing a document knows nothingabout the structure of the document and determines, the margininformation it uses from images of the pages. In an embodiment theseimages are created using a program which is configured to appear to anapplication like a (printer driver) program for regular printer pagegeneration. However, at the end instead of sending a printer command setto a printer, it creates a bitmap image on disc.

A management application program then loads this image and examines theimage and determine what the margins 702 a-d are, as shown in FIG. 7.The skilled person will appreciate that the determination these marginsfor a page is relatively straightforward. The page image can be thenrecreated to a size that allows the actual content to be optimallyfitted to the resolution of the active display area.

If first image generation pass could be created with the “correct”scaling factor, this would remove the need to run the computationallyexpensive process again for the second pass. It is possible to make areasonable guess based upon previous knowledge of document types. Thiscan take advantage of the fact that many users set their margins once intheir word processor and use those settings for all documents.Embodiments of the process may then “learn” that setting, optimallyseparately for each user of a device.

However it is possible, often likely, that many pages within a documenthave different margins. This would provide a poor reading experience ifeach page were scaled individually. For example, as the reader changedpages the same 12 pt font could be rendered at any size from 100% of theprint equivalent down to 70% of the original. It is thus desirable toapply the same scaling to the whole document. To achieve this, ratherthan look at the margins of a single page preferably substantially everypage is examined. For each of the left, right, top and bottom marginsthe process finds the smallest measured value found throughout the wholedocument. These values can then be used to re-parse the whole documentto an optimal scaling to suit the display, that is a scaling in whichthe largest actual content size just fits on the re-writable portion ofthe display.

Referring now to FIG. 8, this shows a flow diagram of a procedure toenable use of the processing power of a “host” consumer electronicsdevice to render, re-scale and crop page data, providing images of pagesfor direct display on an electronic document reading device (paperlessprinter), thus substantially reducing the processing burden on thedisplay device. This in turn facilitates achieving extremely longbattery life times in the “printer”.

In the procedure of FIG. 8, a document 800, either stored locally orreceived from a remote source, is used to invoke a “print” function onthe paperless printer (this is described further below). The procedurethen locates an application associated with the document (802) andchecks (804) that a print function is supported for this type ofdocument (if it is not an error message can be displayed). The procedurethen optionally checks if previous scaling data is available, forexample determined from another document previously printed by the sameuser. If this information is available the procedure reads theinformation from non-volatile memory (808); otherwise the procedurecontinues, and determines a scaling to employ.

Thus at step 810 the procedure invokes the relevant application for thedocument to print the document using a printer driver to a set of imagepages, preferably at a resolution of the paperless printer (electronicdocument reading device), for example in one embodiment 1280×1220. Theprocedure then initialises a set of margin sizes for left, right, topand bottom margins to a set of maximum values (for 100% scaling), atstep 812. Then, for each page (814) the procedure measures the marginson the page (816) as shown in FIG. 7 and, for each margin (818)determines whether or not the margin is less than the relevant storedvalue, updating the stored value (820) if the measured margin issmaller, and continuing (822) until the last page is reached. Theprocedure then uses the smallest margin values to determine a scalingwhich is to be applied to all of the pages so that one or more pageswith a smallest margin size fit within the re-writeable portion of thedisplay (824). Optionally this scaling data is stored, optionallytogether with a user identification (826) for later use in printing asecond document without repeating the scaling procedure.

The procedure then invokes the application for the document a secondtime to “print” to image pages at the determined scaling using theprinter driver, providing the desired scale as an input to theprint-to-image driver. The management program then crops the imagesusing the smallest determined margins (830), the result of this againbeing images of pages at substantially the same resolution as that ofthe electronic document display device (paperless printer), for example1280×920. These images are then sent to the electronic document readerfor a “printing” (display) at 1:1 resolution, thus substantiallyreducing the processing burden within the electronic document readingdevice. The scaled “printing” at step 828 can straightforwardlyimplement advanced functions such as anti-aliasing and font hinting (forgrey scale fonts) since these functions are performed by a printerdriver for the application. Thus, broadly speaking, a result of theprocedure is to strip off margins, the same size for each page, in whichno information content is present and then to stretch the resultingpage, automatically scaling fonts and performing functions such ashinting, to match a target resolution for the paperless printer.

The skilled person will appreciate that there are many ways in which totransfer the image data to the paperless printer, for example providingthe information directly to the device or as part of a synchronisationroutine to synchronise content in one or both directions between theconsumer electronic device and the paperless printer. The paperlessprinter, in embodiments, stores actual images of pages rather than datadefined in the content of a page at some higher level. In this contextan image of a page comprises a map with a pixel value defining the pixelcolour, grey scale, or black/white level, for substantially each pixelof the re-writeable display portion of the paperless printer. This imagedata may be compressed, for example according to a lossless technique.Surprisingly an image of a page typically occupies only 10-20 KB and isthus not significantly less efficient then page data represented in ahigher level format such as ASCII once additional formatting data istaken into account. Thus non-volatile memory in the paperless printermay store tens of thousands of pages.

Referring next to FIG. 9, this shows more details of how elements of theprocedure of FIG. 8 are distributed between different software modulesand implemented. Thus the procedure of FIG. 8 in the example of FIG. 9is implemented on a laptop computer 900, although it will be understoodthat other types of computerised electronic device may also be employedincluding, but not limited to, a PDA (personal digital assistant) and amobile phone. Page image data 902 at a resolution substantially equal tothat of a resolution of the paperless printer is sent to the paperlessprinter 904 for display. Optionally (not shown in FIG. 9) informationsuch as annotation data representing user annotations on a paperlessprinter document may be transferred back from paperless printer 904 toconsumer electronic device at 900, for example as part of asynchronisation procedure.

In preferred embodiments, the management program 906 runs as abackground service on the device 900, hidden from a general user. Agraphical user interface 908 is provided, for example on a desktop ofdevice 900, to allow a user to setup parameters of the paperlessprinting mechanism, although in preferred embodiments the “printing”itself happens automatically. That is, in some preferred embodiments asystem 910, for example provided by an operating system of device 900,monitors one or more directories for changes in documents 800 and ondetection of a change informs the management program 906. This thenautomatically invokes a synchronisation procedure to provide an updatedocument image, using the technique described above. In this way themanagement program automatically “prints” documents (or at least achanged part of a document), in a visual, image format, to theelectronic reader when a document changes. The image information isstored on the electronic reader although it need not be displayedimmediately. This sync update can be quick, in part because theprocessing is performed on the host. Optionally a drag-and-dropinterface may also be provided for a user so that when a user drags anddrops a document onto an appropriate icon the management programprovides a (transparent) paperless print function for the user.

Thus in one embodiment in a Windows (registered Trademark) environmentthe management program opens a hidden desktop (a Windows function) andthen opens the relevant application for the document in the hiddendesktop. The application is run to process the document and print thedocument using a printer driver to print to an image file. This imagefile is then parsed by the management program 906 which determines ascaling, and then the document is reprinted at the determined scaling(if a scaling is known the initial parsing procedure may be omitted).The management program then crops the scaled image data and outputsimage data at a pixel resolution suitable for the paperless printer 904,for printing without further rendering. Thus when the documents iswanted for display on the paperless printer, minimal further processingis necessary.

This technique may be used for a range of programs including, forexample, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer (allRegistered Trademarks) and the like. For other programs, for exampleXL2007 (Registered Trademark) rather than opening a hidden desktop theapplication may be invoked by the management program 906 by running ascript. Similar approaches may be adopted in other operating systems,for example Apple Mac computers based on a Unix-type operating system.

The skilled person will understand that, in this specification,“document” is used broadly since the techniques we describe areapplicable to any information on a page, not just words, including forexample, pictures, music and in general any material which may beprinted to a page. Thus references to pages of a document are to beinterpreted broadly and may include, for example, web pages, e-mails,image pages and many other types of document, for example music scores.It will also be understood that embodiments of the device we describemay be used for writing as well as reading, for example to annotate apage which is being read.

No doubt many other effective alternatives will occur to the skilledperson. It will be understood that the invention is not limited to thedescribed embodiments and encompasses modifications apparent to thoseskilled in the art lying within the spirit and scope of the claimsappended hereto.

We claim:
 1. A paperless electronic printer system for displaying aprinted document on an electronic paper display, the system comprising:a device that is arranged to run a document display management program;locate, by said document display management program, an applicationassociated with said printed document; automatically invoke, by saiddocument display management program, opening of said document on saiddevice using said application associated with said printed document suchthat opening of said document is hidden from said user; generate, bysaid document display management program, print data in response to saidautomatic opening of said document, said print data print datacomprising data for one or more document pages to be printed, said printdata comprising an image of a said document page to be printed beingscaled by said device based upon scaling data determined from a documentpreviously printed by a user associated with the one or more documentpages to be printed wherein the same scaling data is applied to thewhole document; and a portable paperless electronic printer comprising:an input to receive said generated print data; non-volatile memory forstoring said generated print data; a non-volatile reflective display toprovide an electronic paper display of a document page of said storedgenerated print data; and a processor coupled to said inputs, to saidnon-volatile memory, and to said non-volatile reflective display andconfigured to input said generated print data, to store said generatedprint data in said non-volatile memory, to provide to said non-volatilereflective display data for displaying a said document page derived fromsaid stored generated print data; wherein said automatic opening of saiddocument is triggered by an automatic background synchronisation serviceto provide image data from said device to said portable paperlesselectronic printer.
 2. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said dataderived from said print data comprises a lossless compressed version ofsaid print data.
 3. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said dataderived from said print data defines an image of a printed said documentpage with cropped margins.
 4. A system as claimed in claim 1 whereinsaid non-volatile reflective display has a border substantially visuallymatched to said display to give the impression that part of a displayeddocument page extends beyond said display into said border.
 5. A systemas claimed in claim 4 wherein said data derived from said print datadefines an image of a printed said document page with cropped marginsand wherein said part of a displayed document page which extends beyondsaid border comprises said cropped margins of said document page.
 6. Asystem as claimed in claim 4 wherein said display and said borders havea lateral spatial extent substantially equal to a size of said displayeddocument page, whereby said displayed document page extendssubstantially to lateral boundaries of said paperless electronicprinter.
 7. A system as claimed in claim 4, wherein no portion of saiddisplay extends in front of said display surface.
 8. A system as claimedin claim 4, wherein said border includes touch sensitive regions.
 9. Asystem as claimed in claim 8 wherein said paperless electronic printerhas a portrait orientation and a landscape orientation, and wherein saidprocessor is configured to recognise one or more touch gesturesperformed on said border irrespective of said orientation.
 10. A systemas claimed in claim 1 wherein said non-volatile reflective displaycomprises an electrophoretic display.
 11. A method of printing adocument onto an electronic paper display, the method comprising:running a document display management program on a second device;locating, by said document display management program, an applicationassociated with said document; automatically invoking, by said documentdisplay management program, opening of said document on said seconddevice using said application associated with said document such thatopening of said document is hidden from said user; generating print dataat said second device using said document display management program,said print data comprising data for one or more document pages to beprinted scaling at said second device said print data based upon scalingdata determined from a document previously printed by a user associatedwith the one or more document pages to be printed wherein the samescaling data is applied to the whole document; sending said scaled printdata to said electronic paper display; storing, at said electronic paperdisplay, data derived from said print data in non-volatile memory;reading, at said electronic paper display, said data derived from saidprint data from said non-volatile memory; providing to a non-volatiledisplay of said electronic paper display document page data fordisplaying a document page derived from said stored data; and displayingsaid document page data on said non-volatile reflective display to mimicsaid document page when printed on paper; wherein said automatic openingof said document is triggered by an automatic background synchronisationservice to send said scaled printed data from said device to saidelectronic paper display.
 12. A method as claimed in claim 11 whereinsaid non-volatile reflective display is smaller than said displayeddocument page and has a non-rewriteable border, and wherein saiddisplaying comprises displaying said document page such that said bordergives the impression of a margin of said document page.
 13. A method asclaimed in claim 11 wherein said print data comprises an image of aprinted said document page at substantially a resolution of are-writeable portion of said electronic paper display, said re-writableportion of said electronic paper display comprising said non-volatilereflective display.
 14. A portable paperless electronic printer asclaimed in claim 11 wherein said non-volatile reflective displaycomprises an electrophoretic display.
 15. A non-transitory computerreadable medium carrying processor control code to, when running,implement the method of claim 11.